Ahaz’s water

Isaiah 8 gives Israel a choice of water. If they don’t want teh gentle waters of Shiloah, He’ll provide other water.

Shiloah is the water source for Jerusalem. It was a stream running from outside the city into the city, and it was the source that kept Jerusalem fruitful and alive. Isaiah uses that water source as an image of Yahweh’s provision, of Yahweh Himself. He is the gently flowing waters of Judah, the source that turns Jerusalem into a garden city. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God – that river is Yahweh Himself. But Judah has rejected that stream, and at least some in Judah are ready to put in their lot with Rezin and Pekah. They don’t rejoice in Yahweh and His water, but rejoice instead in the political alliance that will project them against the Assyrians. What will keep Judah alive is not the spring that is Yahweh, but an alliance that will protect Jerusalem’s water source.

Ahaz himself, as we see in 2 Kings, is relying on Assyria. He makes an alliance with Assyria rather than rely on Yahweh. He is afraid that if he doesn’t ally with Assyria, the Assyrian king will come down and cut off the stream of Shiloah, interrupted Judah’s water supply. If he doesn’t rely on the waters of the Euphrates, he may end up with no water at all. “You want Assyrian water, you get Assyrian water,” Yahweh says. More than ever you wanted, more than you can use, water from the Euphrates so abundant that it will overflow everything and wash away everything in its path. The wings of the Assyrians will spread out over Judah and Jerusalem, covering the whole breadth of Abraham’s land.